Samsung's WinPho7 handset peeped, specs set in stone at MIX

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Hey, I told you MIX was going to be hot. A talk at the development conference has revealed a third flavor of Windows Phone 7 Series, though alas, it does not appear to be the third chassis style we heard exists — unless the extra-hot camera is the third style. This shiny new Samsung keeps the lozenge style but has a more rounded look than the “reference” design we saw at launch. [update: it’s just a hacked i8910]

Some other news from the conference: as we expected, Microsoft is locking down the hardware requirements for WinPho7 devices, requiring them to meet or exceed certain qualifications. And here they are:

800×480 screen (320×480 to follow)

256MB RAM, 8GB flash storage

4-point multi-touch

ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better

DirectX9 support by GPU

Codec acceleration (probably on GPU via DirectX)

5 megapixel camera with flash and separate camera button

Three hard buttons: Start, Search, and Back

GPS, accelerometer, compass, light and proximity sensors

The resolution restriction is a good move for maintaining a similar visual experience across handsets. Actually, locking stuff down like this is good across the board — it means people are free to choose whichever hardware they like without worrying about whether they run the OS well. That’s a major concern for Android buyers right now.

I’m pretty sure the Samsung is not the “third chassis” mainly because of the upcoming HVGA resolution. That suggests to me a candy bar chassis with a full QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry style. The effectively halved resolution makes perfect sense for that. Who knows when they’ll announce it, but I feel strongly that’s the case.